By:
Abigail M
Most
everyone has been frustrated with their school’s dress code at one point or
another, unless their school has uniforms. There are some schools with some
overboard rules like no skirts and no unnatural hair colors while some have the
more well-known rules like no ripped jeans and the iconic cover your shoulders
rule. I didn’t know I had skin on my shoulders until I heard of the dress code
and now I am saved from the embarrassment of distracting everyone with my shoulder
(note the obvious sarcasm here).
Lately, it’s been brought to
attention that dress codes tend to be sexist, since rules like no yoga pants
with shirts that cover your butt, no visible bra strap, and no skinny jeans
usually don’t apply to guys. A dress code is understandable if people have body
parts falling out of their clothes, but some of them are going to have to
change.
At several
schools there are posters being put up in a sign of protest. They usually say
things like “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance”, “Girls wear shorts in order to stay cool when
it’s hot, not for you or anyone else”, “We are worth more than our clothes, put our
education above what we wear”, a drawing of a skeleton with “Stop
over-sexualizing my meat-suit”, and the most hard-hitting, “When you interrupt
a girl’s school day to force her to change clothes or send her home or to ISS
because her shorts are too short or her bra straps are visible, you are telling
her that making sure boys have a ‘distraction free’ learning environment is
more important than her education.”
Most rules have a justifiable reason
behind them but sometimes standards are set just because they can be, or in a “what
if” situation. There are protests going on at different schools and the use of
#wearenotadistraction is getting more popular. With time, a reasonable dress
code can make it’s way across the schools that people with shoulders have to
attend.
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